Rating: 
Summary: brilliant, funny, heart-breaking....
Review: "The Sleeping Father" is one of the best novels by a young(ish) writer I've read in quite some time. It has all the cleverness and linguistic brilliance of many younger writers, but it's not a cynical work, despite its dark humor. It's a very intelligent, ambitious book -- tackling such difficult issues as race, religion, sexuality -- that's both very moving and very very fun.
Rating:
Summary: Combines Humor and Deep Humanity
Review: Chris Schwartz is a seventeen-year-old loveable malcontent, full of anger at the world, more specifically, the jocks at high school who persecute him because he is not, like them, a cookie cutter personality; he's mad at his divorced parents who seem to relish in their dysfunctional states; he's mad at his sister, a Catholic convert who uses her religiosity as a guise to bully others and try to gain control of her chaotic world; and Chris is mad at himself for being such an awkward idiotic friend to the boy he admires so much, his caustic, precocious genius classmate Frank, one of a handful of African Americans who lives in the white suburbs. Amazingly, every paragraph in this novel is an unforced lozenge of irony and contradictions, layers of humor and tenderness side by side. Never sentimental, this novel propels forward with a deep love of its characters even as it satirizes modern life, a truly rare achievement. I picked up this novel only because Anne Tyler, author of The Accidental Tourist, said she enjoyed it in a recent interview. I have her to thank for discovering this masterpiece. Now I must buy and read Matthew Sharpe's other books.
Rating: 
Summary: One star is overly generous.
Review: Contrived, marginally written at best, and wholly unoriginal I would have sued the school board if I were forced to read this book for credit. The characters are as one-dimensional and wooden in their caricature as a picture of the novel itself. This was clearly the author's vehicle to immpress readers with his delusional "gift" of dry wit, sarcasm and feined adolescent angst; Mr. Sharpe, you are no J.D. Salinger. At best, you make Dave Barry look like (worthy) Pulitzer-prize material.
Rating:
Summary: Dazzling
Review: Dizzying, dazzling, dark, and at times hysterical (I couldn't think of another "D" word), this stellar work is reminiscent of McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD or possibly even Vonnegut or Palahinuk. You don't know whether to laugh or cry over this triumph of a novel, and Sharpe's handling of the material is beyoned most other author's grasp. What a wonderfully refreshing and original read this turned out to be.
Rating:
Summary: Horrificly and riduculously unrealistic!!
Review: First of all, I can not believe this book was recommended by the Today Show! Somebody was smoking something when they read this book! And second, who are these people who are giving 4 and 5 stars to this book?!! They must be friends of the author/editor/publisher...somebody OR they are as dysfunctional as the characters in this book!! I read this book through to the end only because it was chosen for my bookclub. I would loved to have shredded it into tiny pieces and then watched it burn! This had to be this most annoying book I have ever read! At times the read was extrememly boring and the other times it was utterly depressing! The Sleeping Father has a horrificly unrealistic storyline! Every character is dysfunctional...and what was the point of the story anyway?! The author has the teenage kids of a invalid father, taking care of the house, paying bills, driving the car? Please! What teenager could take on all that responsibilty without an adult's help? What organization would accept a fifteen or sixteen year old's $75,000 as a donation? There were numerous questions and frustrations vented at my bookclub meeting regarding the absurd happenings in this book - too numerous to get into them all! Trust me, this book is a ridiculously unrealistic, draining read! I hated every word of it!! I don't even want to keep the book in my house, it was so awful!
Rating: 
Summary: Refreshing
Review: I admit, I approach many of these television book club selections with a bit of caution. Many of them, while good, start to all sound alike, which is why I found The Sleeping Father. Bernard is the father in question who unwittingly takes the wrong anti-depressant and falls into a coma. While in the coma, and then in recovery, his teenaged children, Chris and Cathy, are left to cope with not only their father's recovery, but also the normal trials and tribulations of contemporary teens. This novel is quirky, as are Chris and Cathy. Some of their undertakings must be taken with a grain of salt, seen as fantasy rather than reality. All in all, I think this novel is a departure from the typical book club selection. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended Without Reservation
Review: I am amazed by the amount of vitriol in some of the reviews of this book. It's sharp and witty at turns, yes, but ultimately the author treats his characters on the whole more gently than, say, Evelyn Waugh or Jane Austen. I have read there's a movie in the works, and even as I was reading the book I found myself casting it in my mind (paging Jake Gyllenhaal). I would also say that this book has more in common with the movies American Beauty and The Ice Storm than with any other recent novels that come to mind. So, if you liked either of those films, I can recommend this novel to you without reservation. It's not particularly experimental in technique, so it all really comes down to the tightness of the writing and the humanity of the characters, who will live in your head for a long while after you've finished the book.
Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this book!
Review: I am astounded at the negative reviews of this book! I found this to be one of my most enjoyable reads in recent memory. The reader must step out of the box a bit to appreciate the quirkiness of this novel, but the task is worthy of the effort. It's highly original and the plot, while not mired in reality, is well developed. Is everyone in this book dysfunctional? Maybe, but those who can't occassionally see themselves here and there in these pages are in denial. If you prefer to think in black and white, this may not be for you. Appreciate alternative lit? Check it out, you won't be disappointed...
Rating:
Summary: really dreadful
Review: I am rather confused that there are people who enjoyed this book. The reviews criticizing the plot are a bit off I think - sure, it is wildly implausible and not always coherently organized, but it does have elements of originality. The huge, massive problem that is so difficult to overlook is that the writing is dreadful. By the sixth or seventh page, I was already appalled that this was a national book club selection. Lots of cliches. Lots of rambling, useless passages. Frequently obvious and shallow in descriptions. Attempts to introduce novel turns of phrase are usually gaudy and awkward. Note that the book is from a minor press. Note that the book is already heavily discounted by Amazon. These are important signals that I shouldn't have looked over. The book might have been salvagable, had the author tried to rewrite and if the editor had exerted any sort of influence over the dismal writing. As currently written, it reads like a draft of a novel from someone's weekend writing group.
Rating:
Summary: Recommended Without Reservation
Review: I am so surprised to see the virulent animosity aimed toward this book. It was one of the best books I've read in awhile. To me, if a book is full of great, quirky characters who think unique, interesting thoughts, that is a book well worth my time. Tom Robbins is a master at this: books where the plot is secondary to the characters and the ideas. To read this book and focus on whether this plot point or that plot point is realistic is to miss the point, I think.
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